A dream from God saves the life of Darlington woman

 

By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net

Theresa Phillips is celebrating 10 years of being cancer free. That milestone is a remarkable one, even more so because Phillips turned 94-years-old this year.

Phillips graduated high school in 1939 and was married in 1942. Originally from Charleston, Phillips moved to Darlington several decades ago following a move by her father-in-law.

“We were in Charleston and my father-in-law moved to Florence and then from Florence over here,” Phillips said. “So that is why I am here: in-laws.”

Tragically, Phillips’ husband died in 1947 at just 26-years-old. By that time, she was a mother of two, a son and a daughter.

“I never got remarried because I was married to two children,” Phillips said. “My daughter was three and a half and my son was one and a half when my husband died.”

Several decades after graduating high school, Phillips decided to further her education.

“When my children got old enough to leave and go to college I wasn’t needed anymore so I had to need myself,” Phillips said. “So I decided to go to college. I went to Coker and got my bachelors and then I went to Carolina for my PhD.”

Phillips was an athlete when she was in high school, playing tennis and basketball. That active lifestyle didn’t change when she got older.

“I was playing tennis when I was in my seventies,” she said.

It would be that active lifestyle that would eventually wind its way around to helping her discover her cancer.

“My hip hurt,” Phillips said. “Well, I don’t know whether to say my hip hurt me or gave me strength because I’m strong now but I needed a hip replacement. They didn’t want to do it because of my age but they did. I was in the hospital with a hip replacement and the Lord came to me one night in a dream and told me I had cancer.”
Phillips said that the dream frightened her and she took it seriously.
“When I had that dream, it scared me bad,” Phillips said. “I waited until my daughter-in-law came in in the next day or two and she felt it in the breast. She’s a nurse and I asked her to feel and it was a big lump.”
She had surgery to remove the cancer and didn’t require any chemotherapy or radiation.
“I haven’t had any other lumps; it only got to the first stage,” Phillips said. “That’s been ten years and I am still cancer free.”
According to nationalbreastcancer.org, one in eight women in the U.S. will receive a breast cancer diagnosis in their lifetime and it is the second leading cause of death among women. It is estimated that over 252,710 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer every year. Breast cancer does not discriminate against gender. The American Cancer Society estimates that around 2,470 new cases of invasive breast cancer in men will be diagnosed in 2017. Thanks to early detection and treatment there are over 3 million breast cancer survivors alive in the United States today. For more information about cancer statistics, detection and treatment, visit www.cancer.org.

Author: mrollins

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